way south:scotchcrotch: Yet they'd be lambasted if they didnt make arrests.

NYPD cant win

People get frustrated because the system only appears to work if the victim is well shod.I can understand incompetence if its the constant state of affairs. When its selective, it appears as if its a lot more malicious.

Almost as if the cops don't care about poor people...

/or worse, just grabbed a few random drug dealers so we'd have someone to blame./either way its hard to escape the feeling there's alot of corruption involved.

Doubtful the arrests were random. Hoffman was rich, and either he or more likely his assistant probably had his dealer's cell and home phone number on file. After he died, the assistant doesn't want to go to jail on a negligent homicide charge for getting him the drugs, so the assistant gives up the numbers and the name of the dealer.

He was a millionaire in (what should have been) the prime of his life.He had it all. His lovely wife had taken their three young children to the park on a nice day.

Instead of joining them and giving his kids the memory of dad pushing them on the swings, he decided to leave them with the memory of that day being getting the news that their dads bloated corpse had been found sitting in his own shiat with a needle in his arm.

People get frustrated because the system only appears to work if the victim is well shod.I can understand incompetence if its the constant state of affairs. When its selective, it appears as if its a lot more malicious.

Almost as if the cops don't care about poor people...

/or worse, just grabbed a few random drug dealers so we'd have someone to blame./either way its hard to escape the feeling there's alot of corruption involved.

I once brought my bike into the wine shop at the corner of 70th & Amsterdam. Left the bike in the little mud room by the cashiers, grabbed the bottle I wanted, and when i turned around, bike was gone. People from the shop pretended I was invisible when I asked if they saw anything or if we could look at their security cameras' videos. So I called the local precinct. They told me they were sending an unit. 30 minutes later, and nobody showing up, I waved the next police car that drove by. When I explained what had happened, cop takes a deep breath, looks at me straight in the eye, then asks "and what the fark do you want me to do about it?", then drives off.

Whodat:So if we are to excuse away his drug use, shouldn't we excuse away the providers? Seems only fair.

They are only being looked at because he's a celebrity.I had a friend who, after 7 years of sobriety, thought he could have 1 more shot, and it killed him. $10 worth. I told the police who showed up exactly who sold it to him and their response was, "He was an adult, there's nothing we can do."

Pangea:For the record, I agree that Phil Hoffman is an idiot because he found recovery and lived it for over 20 years.

He knew the risks and he took them anyway.

I mostly feel bad for everyday Americans who are being prescribed into addiction by our infallible pharmaceutical industry. That's the true nightmare and this problem is going to get a lot worse before it gets better.

Until we can develop a sensible treatment program and reduce the stigma associated with being an addict, many lives will be ruined.

I think that is a good point. I believe the "addiction is a disease" only insofar as the addict has never been educated about it. I think once an addict has the knowledge and tools learned from going through a program that the choice to use in the future becomes a choice. Yes the craving may always be there but you know what will happen if you pick up and it is really irresponsible to do so.

So, for the record, in your mind, only stupid people get addicted, but if a smart person does get addicted, you don't want to be smart because that means you would get addicted. Well, whatever gets you through the day. Reminds me of church logic.

Only a stupid person would try it in the first place, so in a way, yes. Only stupid people get addicted.

There is a whole cross-section of normal, productive members of society that became addicted to legal, prescribed painkillers. Laws changed and many of those legitimate prescriptions from pain clinics were cut off, and those addicted people were left with no support.

It's not as simple as just "quitting" for those people, and they were doing what a doctor told them to do. We've been taught as a culture to trust doctors because they know better than us.

Those people didn't say "I'm going to become a farking junkie today" and just start using needles. You don't understand that though, and you're not interested in hearing the uncomfortable truth that has become reality in our society.

You're an ignorant moron with a myopic world view, who thinks you know how the world works. fark you.

ristst:Nevertheless, heroin is just one of those things that everyone...*everyone*...knows is incredibly, dangerously addictive. If a person is using it, they went into that situation fully aware of the risks.

Everyone knows that a sedentary lifestyle and a diet of chili cheese fries and pepsi will kill you, too. It's still normal to be sad when it does.

Well I use Mac/Linux...:RussianPooper: Well I use Mac/Linux...: I cant stand all the idolizing of this guy after his OD. I see him being called a genius everywhere. A genius wouldn't OD on heroin and leave his kids without a dad. A farking moron would do that.

I can't stand people who continue to think that people who get addicted do so out of a lack of intelligence. Although it's a nice simple answer for nice simple people.

Yup, I'm the simple one who hasn't killed himself by injecting a lethal substance into his arm. If only I could be as bright as dear old Phil.

So, for the record, in your mind, only stupid people get addicted, but if a smart person does get addicted, you don't want to be smart because that means you would get addicted. Well, whatever gets you through the day. Reminds me of church logic.

People get frustrated because the system only appears to work if the victim is well shod.I can understand incompetence if its the constant state of affairs. When its selective, it appears as if its a lot more malicious.

Almost as if the cops don't care about poor people...

/or worse, just grabbed a few random drug dealers so we'd have someone to blame./either way its hard to escape the feeling there's alot of corruption involved.

Doubtful the arrests were random. Hoffman was rich, and either he or more likely his assistant probably had his dealer's cell and home phone number on file. After he died, the assistant doesn't want to go to jail on a negligent homicide charge for getting him the drugs, so the assistant gives up the numbers and the name of the dealer.

Not rocket surgery, people.

Good theory, but records have him pulling nearly ~$1200 from multiple ATMs that day (morning before? something.) and on security cameras chatting up certain bike messengers.

From TFA:

"On Tuesday, a law enforcement source told CNN that the night before Hoffman died, he withdrew $1,200 from a grocery store ATM near his apartment.Hoffman got the money in six transactions Saturday night, according to the source."

Not that I can project that this guy was in any way noble in the process, but he most likely was ashamed of his habit, and didn't put anyone else up to doing his dirty work.

I just don't see him as the narcissist that would send his assistant to fetch for him. This was his personal demon.

I've unfortunately been around drug culture all my life, and the two most wasteful drugs I have ever witnessed in "action" was crack and heroin. Meth is a close 3rd, but it takes its time.

Heroin steals your soul, and takes the brain hostage to its next adventure. I'm not religious in any capacity but if I believed in the Devil, heroin would be his most formidable "magic".

Well I use Mac/Linux...:I cant stand all the idolizing of this guy after his OD. I see him being called a genius everywhere. A genius wouldn't OD on heroin and leave his kids without a dad. A farking moron would do that.

I can't stand people who continue to think that people who get addicted do so out of a lack of intelligence. Although it's a nice simple answer for nice simple people.

Marcus Aurelius:The DEA was on NPR yesterday explaining how all opioids must be banned and to hell with your pain.

It looks to me like a ban is an exercise in utter futility.

I think you mean opiates, which is a slightly easier argument to make. Tons of things are opiods, including Immodium. Yes, Immodium, the thing you take to stop the runs, is an opiod. Don't really hear about much Immodium abuse now do you?

It's still pants on head retarded though, because without morphine and its wonderful relatives recovery from surgery is literally torture. Also if opiates were banned, anyone who has ever had a kidney stone would probably band together in one groaning group hobbling along with torches and pitchforks and destroy the DEA as a whole. Seriously, try getting through that kind of pain without an opiate in your system; not gonna happen.

They had two days notice that there was a video of them handing a messenger bag to SPH. Assuming that the people arrested are those in the vid.... And that they got caught with more than 300 bags if heroin....

Pro tip: dispose of or have someone hold or hide your heroin and lay low if you know the cops have you on video and are closing on you.